Toothbrushes generally comprise bristles, usually arranged in tufts of about 40 to 50, for the purpose of cleaning teeth by removing accumulated plaque and other debris. It has further been recognised gum health can be improved by gentle stimulation of the gums with massaging elements. There has therefore been a desire to have a toothbrush which provides for the cleaning ability of bristles, along with a massaging elements also located on the toothbrush head to stimulate the gums.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,862 discloses a toothbrush comprising an elongate massaging element along each side of the brush head. The toothbrush of U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,883 has a wider than conventional head with a central bristle portion flanked by arrays of massaging elements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,082 describes a toothbrush with transverse ‘bristle’ bars, the description revealing that the bristle bars can also be made of a rubber-like or thermoplastic material; the brush may also have a massaging tip. A toothbrush described in EP-A-360,766 has outer longitudinal rows of resilient massaging cylinders integrally formed with a backing which covers the back face of the toothbrush and its tip. WO-A-96/15696 describes a toothbrush with strips of a flexible and resilient material, which in some embodiments are arranged in transverse rows alternated with rows of bristles. WO-A-98/18364 discloses a toothbrush with a combination of bristles, soft cleansing pad and/or polishing fingers. FIG. 4 of that application shows a brush with longitudinal outer rows comprising both polishing fingers and bristle tufts.
Nevertheless, despite the foregoing, such brushes have not met with significant commercial success. One of the reasons may be that, although gum massaging elements can provide useful therapeutic benefits, it has been found by the present applicant that brush users dislike the feeling of significant amounts of rubber in the part of the brush head generally occupied by bristles. It has, however, now further been found that the impression of rubber on the brush head can be significantly alleviated, whilst retaining the benefits of massaging elements by interspersing massaging elements with bristle tufts along the brush periphery and by avoiding the use of massaging elements in the central portion of the brush head.